Saturday, October 16, 2010

Cupcake Costume- Pottery Barn style- aka the last week of my life!

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Hello! And welcome to my new show, Jacki’s Insane and She writes about it on the internet! Why am I insane? Because I sewed two costumes this past week. From a picture in a catalog, and my secret bag of tricks. Wellll…not so secret now.

Here’s some really bad pics of the costume. Ever try taking pictures of a 3 year old that loves to pose? And is wearing a sweater under the costume? It’s stinkin hard. So that’s all I got.

Still want to make the costume? Or at least read about it and then no longer wonder why my house looks so messy in above pictures? Well, here we go…

First you need some fleece:

Some white fleece- enough to cover your child’s body and for a color

Some pink fleece- about a yard and a half for a preschooler

Some brown fleece- another 3/4 yd or more for the bottom

scraps of fleece/felt/fabric for sprinkles

Ok so here’s how I figured how much I needed- I copied an A-line dress from Natalie’s closet. I copied it onto some paper, then drew on it where the brown fleece would go, where the frosting capes would be, etc.

I cut 2 pieces of white fleece to be the same size as the dress.

Cut the brown fleece to cover the bottom, and scalloped the edges. See how it goes a little bit beyond the dress? That’s so it sticks out a little and looks like a cupcake liner with body. If you don’t want that, then cut it the same width as the dress.

For the frosting capes, I made two circle skirts, but instead of sewing around the wait, sewed them around the collar and at the chest. I cut out patterns like Dana at made instructs here at her Circle Skirt tutorial.

My measurements were:

chest frosting cape: 4 inch radius and 7 in length

Neck frosting cape: 3 in radius and 7 inches.

I should have made them longer. So if you do it, do it at 9 or 10 or 11 inches. You could always trim it later.

Then I folded up the pattern like snowflakes from second grade and made scallops

Cut it out of the pink fabric. Here the neck and chest frosting capes are with the sprinkles.

Here’s what all the pieces look like together. Oh and the collar- twice the circumference of the neckline, 5 inches wide.

Now let’s sew!

Sew up the shoulders and sides, right sides facing.

Sew up the cupcake liner on the sides, then slip over the dress. Pin in lines up the dress, gathering together to make it full of body. I stared in the middle and at the side seams, then pinned the lines inbetween. Eat some chocolate during this part and listen to relaxing music, it’s tricky.

This is what it looks like all done and pretty:

Sew the bottom of the dress to the liner, then fold under and hem.

Fold raw edges of armholes in 1/2 inch and sew all the way around. (Ignore the pink on this picture, I did this step later adn regretted it so I’m putting it here because it would have been easier)

Lay out your sprinkles and sew them on. I didn’t do true appliqué and fold under the circles. Just sewed around the edge and then trimmed any funny looking excess.

Next cut a slit in the back of the neck frosting cape. Pin he neck frosting cape to the collar.

Back

Inside the back slit- I folded the pink over the white to finish it.

Front. Baste (stitch length 4) like this all the way around.

Closeup

Now take the collar, fold in half, wrong sides together,lengthwise, and sew. Fold in ends and sew.

Pin collar to neckline, top of the collar next to the frosting cape. It flips up after you sew it.

Closeup- dress, cape, collar.

Sew. Serge if you like .

Sew the slit in the back, add a 1/2 inch elastic loop on one side, and sew a button on the other.

Now go find a preschooler who loves cupcakes. Or go make a soft basket candy bag. Also, send me some the money you saved from making one instead of going to pottery barn. :) Then maybe we could buy some modeling lessons for the youngun. :)